A connected curriculum for higher education     

Amani Bell 《高等教育研究与发展》2020,39(2):390-392

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Impact of an engineering design-based curriculum compared to an inquiry-based curriculum on fifth graders’ content learning of simple machines     

Ismail Marulcu  Michael Barnett 《Research in Science & Technological Education》2016,34(1):85-104

Background: Elementary Science Education is struggling with multiple challenges. National and State test results confirm the need for deeper understanding in elementary science education. Moreover, national policy statements and researchers call for increased exposure to engineering and technology in elementary science education. The basic motivation of this study is to suggest a solution to both improving elementary science education and increasing exposure to engineering and technology in it.

Purpose/Hypothesis: This mixed-method study examined the impact of an engineering design-based curriculum compared to an inquiry-based curriculum on fifth graders’ content learning of simple machines. We hypothesize that the LEGO-engineering design unit is as successful as the inquiry-based unit in terms of students’ science content learning of simple machines.

Design/Method: We used a mixed-methods approach to investigate our research questions; we compared the control and the experimental groups’ scores from the tests and interviews by using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and compared each group’s pre- and post-scores by using paired t-tests.

Results: Our findings from the paired t-tests show that both the experimental and comparison groups significantly improved their scores from the pre-test to post-test on the multiple-choice, open-ended, and interview items. Moreover, ANCOVA results show that students in the experimental group, who learned simple machines with the design-based unit, performed significantly better on the interview questions.

Conclusions: Our analyses revealed that the design-based Design a people mover: Simple machines unit was, if not better, as successful as the inquiry-based FOSS Levers and pulleys unit in terms of students’ science content learning.  相似文献   

How to repair the Hill cipher     

ISMAIL I.A. AMIN Mohammed DIAB Hossam 《浙江大学学报(A卷英文版)》2006,7(12):2022-2030

INTRODUCTION Owing to the advance in network technology, information security is an increasingly important problem. Popular application of multimedia tech- nology and increasingly transmission ability of net- work gradually leads us to acquire information di- rectly and clearly through images. Hence, data secu- rity has become a critical and imperative issue. Hill cipher is a block cipher that has several advantages such as disguising letter frequencies of the plaintext, its simplicity be…  相似文献   

Getting Personal: Reaching Out to Adult Learners through a Course Management System     

Lizah Ismail 《The Reference Librarian》2013,54(3):244-262

Adult learners are returning to college in increasing numbers. The Marywood University Library has seen an influx, particularly in the university's Master of Social Work program, where many adult learners are reentering school after years of absence. Reaching out to this user group, the library initiated a personal librarian service through a Course Management System, a familiar online environment for these students. A survey was conducted to determine whether library help delivered in this way is favored among adult learners.  相似文献   

SAUDI ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SCIENCE TEACHERS’ BELIEFS: TEACHING SCIENCE IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM     

Amani K. Hamdan Alghamdi  Misfer Saud Al-Salouli 《International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education》2013,11(2):501-525

This study explored Saudi elementary school science teachers’ beliefs about the process of teaching and learning science. This involved the exploration of their views about the new Saudi science curriculum, which emphasizes critical thinking and problem solving. Comprehensive interviews were held in 8 schools with 4 male and 6 female—2 of whom were from private schools—science teachers. The interviews were analyzed to identify and assess common themes among their beliefs as well as associations between their beliefs and self-reported classroom practices. The findings revealed perceptual differences between teaching the old and the new science curricula and also that these science teachers were challenged by available class time, the student–teacher ratio, and the lack of laboratory space, equipment, and administrative support. It appears that the more interactive and group-oriented activities that formed the instructional foundation of the new curriculum have increased enjoyment for teaching science and led students to better comprehension of scientific concepts.  相似文献   

Estimation of Maximum Oxygen Uptake in Adults from AAHPER Youth Fitness Test Items     

Harold B. Falls  A. H. Ismail  D. F. Macleod 《Research quarterly for exercise and sport》2013,84(2):192-201

Abstract

The validity of estimating maximum oxygen uptake from AAHPER Youth Fitness Test items was determined utilizing 87 adult subjects. Multiple correlations were obtained utilizing the motor fitness items as independent variables. Three dependent variables were investigated for relationship to the independent variables (gross O₂ uptake, O₂ uptake/kg body wt., O₂ uptake/kg lean body wt.). The multiple correlation of the AAHPER items with O₂ uptake/kg body wt. (0.760) was higher than with the other two variables. It was determined by multiple regression techniques that a subset of four of the independent variables could be used to get an estimate of O₂ uptake/kg body wt. with an associated standard error of ± 12 percent of the estimated values. This was compared with the standard errors of more complicated estimation methods.  相似文献   

Teaching habitat and animal classification to fourth graders using an engineering-design model     

Ismail Marulcu 《Research in Science & Technological Education》2013,31(2):135-161

The paper reports findings on variable‐handling aspects of pupil performance in investigatory tasks, using data from the British APU national survey programme. It is based on tasks of similar logical structure, undertaken in various formats and response modes and including practical and pencil and paper versions. The tasks are shown to elicit diverse collective and individual responses in terms of variable handling performance, despite their logical similarity. The paper concludes with a discussion of the significance of these findings for assessment methodology and for understanding of 15‐year‐old pupils’ approaches to the variable‐based logic of investigation.  相似文献   

Improving educational web search for question-like queries through subject classification     

Tolga Yilmaz  Rifat Ozcan  Ismail Sengor Altingovde  Özgür Ulusoy 《Information processing & management》2019,56(1):228-246

Students use general web search engines as their primary source of research while trying to find answers to school-related questions. Although search engines are highly relevant for the general population, they may return results that are out of educational context. Another rising trend; social community question answering websites are the second choice for students who try to get answers from other peers online. We attempt discovering possible improvements in educational search by leveraging both of these information sources. For this purpose, we first implement a classifier for educational questions. This classifier is built by an ensemble method that employs several regular learning algorithms and retrieval based approaches that utilize external resources. We also build a query expander to facilitate classification. We further improve the classification using search engine results and obtain 83.5% accuracy. Although our work is entirely based on the Turkish language, the features could easily be mapped to other languages as well. In order to find out whether search engine ranking can be improved in the education domain using the classification model, we collect and label a set of query results retrieved from a general web search engine. We propose five ad-hoc methods to improve search ranking based on the idea that the query-document category relation is an indicator of relevance. We evaluate these methods for overall performance, varying query length and based on factoid and non-factoid queries. We show that some of the methods significantly improve the rankings in the education domain.  相似文献   

Goals, components, and factors considered in university development     

Sufean Hussin  Aziah Ismail 《Asia Pacific Education Review》2009,10(1):83-91

It is generally known that the general goals of universities are to produce high-quality graduates for the job market, to continuously advance the frontier of knowledge in all the disciplines, and ultimately to advance human civilization. There can, however, be numerous specific goals which differ from one university to the other. Whatever it is, in order to achieve the desired goals, universities need to design a realistic strategic development plan, which must include, among others, the important logistical components and factors of university development. In Malaysia, little is known about university development planning process as a subject area. Annual reports and calendars published by universities do not provide sufficient information about the elements and aspects of high priorities in their strategic development plan. As such, we decided to conduct a study on eleven (11) foremost public universities in Malaysia—a country with a centralized education system—in order to examine the goals, components, and factors considered by university top-management in planning university development. We administered a checklist to 296 respondents, comprising deputy vice-chancellors or deputy rectors, registrars, deans, and directors. The checklist required the respondents to rate the consideration level on a scale of 1 (least considered) to 5 (highly considered) for each of the items on goals, components, and factors. This article reports the main findings of our study. Among other things, the most obvious result revealed by the study was that universities were very concerned with the relevancy of academic programs offered and their performance in research. It was rather surprising, however, that the top-management of public universities in Malaysia placed the goal of providing quality infrastructure and facilities at the lowest ranking. Also, this study revealed that the government, as a factor, exerted its prominence only in terms of university budget and research grants and the execution of some policies of national interest, but university expansion and development was largely driven by the university organization itself, i.e., on where, what, and how it wants to expand and grow. In this regard, public universities in Malaysia still enjoy a large degree of academic autonomy and a strong support by the government.  相似文献   

Programme Quality Assessment by the Implication of Variable Entry Qualifications on Students' Performance     

Rahidzab Talib  Razidah Ismail  Roziah Mohd. Janor  Azni Zain Ahmed  Syed Abdul Kader Aljunid 《Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education》1999,24(2):205-213

Since its inception 30 years ago, the then Department of Engineering Science, Institut Teknologi MARA (ITM) was given the responsibility of preparing all the students in the first year engineering programmes by giving enough knowledge in basic science and mathematics. The nation's vision to become a fully‐industrialised economy by the year 2020 required all institutes of higher learning (IHLs) in Malaysia to increase their intake of students in the science and technology courses, especially in engineering. However, at the upper secondary education level, students have the freedom to choose between the science‐based or non‐science combination of subjects. This has led to a dearth of science‐based students enrolling in IHLs. Because ITM believes that it is possible to educate individuals from various backgrounds, the engineering courses are open to students with a variety of academic qualifications. Special bridging courses were designed and created for such students since late 1996. The success or failure of the new courses can be assessed after the students have gone through the proper first year engineering courses which consist of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. This paper reports on a pilot study on the pioneer groups of students with variable entry qualifications to assess the effectiveness of the courses. The study involved the analysis of the students’ examination results as a performance indicator, and it was found that the bridging programme for non‐science students needed to be redesigned. It is also proposed that to improve the quality of the programme, and hence students’ performance, a regular review be conducted, student support activities be continued and to expand the use of self‐study materials.  相似文献